We started our Thanksgiving celebrations tonight with the Young Men's and Young Women's. The youth of our ward have the tradition of preparing a Thanksgiving meal for those in the ward who can't afford it, don't have family around or any other circumstance. We had 35 meals to make but 15 more for the leaders and youth. Let me be honest, us young women leaders were a little stressed about making this all work out. But I am happy to say that it was a great experience. We received help from a couple ward members with the potatoes and turkey, and the youth helped prepare everything else. Then we split into groups to deliver and visit with the members.

I am so grateful for this experience. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own little world that I forget there are many others close around me in need of a friend, food, love, care etc. It was such a great reminder to remember others and try to make their day better by a phone call, smile, high five, or a simple hello. I just wanted to pass this experience onto the rest of you a week before Thanksgiving. As life gets busy preparing for the holidays and parties etc. remember there is more to life than having the most presents, or best pie. Simple pleasures come from serving those around us.

Even though we are looking forward to the many Thanksgiving dinners on there way, this Thanksgiving dinner tasted the best because I know that it didn't only fill a stomach but warmed a heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Break in MOAB

I have officially purchased a bumper sticker, PARIS, TOYKO, LONDON AND MOAB. Now I have visited each of these places! We left for Moab last Saturday and returned on Tuesday night. I had never been to Moab and had a great time hiking and biking. We camped with some friends at a great camp site. I never thought I could enjoy camping but, this site had toilets, showers, hot tubs, and a pool. Some of my family probably wouldn't consider this camping.

We hiked to Delicate Arch, Devils Garden(including landscape arch, and Double O arches), and through Fiery Furnace. We also spent a morning on our bikes... which I have bruises and scrapes to prove. The ride was intense and there were parts that I hated it, but once I finished I felt like I had accomplished something. It was a great feeling and got me excited for next year.

Sometimes time away is just what the doctor ordered. This was our first time going somewhere that wasn't planned by our family and we want to do it more often. If you have any suggestions of where to go next let us know! Here are some pictures.

That's me biking down a hill. .. Don't worry I got sweet air.

Sam and Clint in the Double Arch
The group in front of Delicate Arch
Sam and I on top on the highest arch of Double Arch.

A weekend in WOODLAND

The beginning of October brought General Conference. Sam's family has a tradition of spending the weekend at the cabin in Woodland. What a great weekend we enjoyed. We had a great time, watching conference, enjoying girl time while the boys were at Priesthood, making crafts, playing games and eating some great food. I also got to hear the Preston's vision about the cabin. For those of you that don't know, the Richards have been working on this cabin since 1997(according to Sam). It is absolutely gorgeous and we are so grateful to have such a great retreat so close by.

We were in charge of bringing games. Such a blast to play games with a group.
Anna and Dave came from Provo, it was great to hang out with them. This is Dave while playing Catch Phrase.
This is my favorite spot to sit at the cabin, right in front of the cackling fire.

Thanks for a great weekend getaway!

SEPTEMBER

I think about posting a lot, but I never seem to get around to it. Many of you know that I love to make lists, I made a list today, titled it: Things to do before Fall Break is over. My list including a wide variety of things including, applying for graduation, carving pumpkins, updating my 72 hour kits, and of course posting on my blog.
Time has just been flying by. September came and went in a blink of an eye. Sam and I spent probably about one week in our own bed during the entire month. We enjoyed other people's houses, cars and other luxuries. I hope that one day we get to go on our own adventures rather than just watching kids, pets, houses etc. while others we know and love enjoy the world!
School is back in full gear. Sam has been working really hard keeping up in his classes. The boy sure loves his anatomy class. It's been a great refresher for me listening to him talk about what they are learning.
I am loving both my internships and looking forward to my so close graduation. Everyday I spend at the Huntsman Cancer Institute I come home inspired and so grateful for the healthy and functioning body that I have been blessed with. I also started biometric screenings at the University of Utah. I was so scared for my first finger pricking experience that I practiced on Sam and Kim. I got all my troubles out on them and haven't had a problem.
When we weren't busy chasing children and running from house to house we were: celebrating birthday's, Grandpa Richards, Erik, my mom, Cory, and cousin Linsey. We were at or watching Utah football games!, and enjoying the warm weather that September brought us hiking, running, and waterskiing/wake boarding for the last time of the year.

Hiking up to Donut Falls
Nona's, Cory's and Erik's birthday cake.....
Happy Birthday Grandpa Richards.

the whirlwind in which we live

This post is much past due, as some of you will know.  But I feel like I need to share about all the things Sam and I have been doing that has kept us away from the computer and the blog.  Most importantly summer semester has ended, we had almost 2 full weeks of summer vacation and with only three days left we are trying to make the most of each free moment.  As my teaching time came to an end I took on a job to continue teaching through the fall.  I doubled my hours and am teaching stretch and strengthen and indoor cycling three times a week and core training two times.  I am really excited to continue to teach, it's a great part time job and release for me.  Sam has been organizing his life and course loads all the way to dental school.  He has decided to take smaller class loads and continue working meaning we will hopefully be leaving for dental school in 2012!! holy moly that sounds so far away.  I know it will go fast and it also gives me the opprotunity to continue on with school- right now I'm considering dietician or pta school.  Any suggestions of what I should do with my life after graduating in december?  

Anyways back to what we have been doing, well it's definitely wedding season!  We are way excited for our friends and family that have tied the knot recently, congrats to all of you!

We have been decorating and home improving.  These trays cost 6$ at the DI.  Carole aren't you proud of me, I went to the DI all by myself and came out with these treasures!!  My mom is actually using one of those as a serving tray at a party tonight!!
We have been reorganizing moving the stuff in the cupboards to the shelves and stuff from the shelves to the cupboard.  The change was fun and made the room feel totally different.  here's the before and....
after! We also re-arranged furniture thanks to my sister Lyndsay's approval, it looks great! Everything in our house seems to be a bit more functional which is much needed when it's so small.  
In case you didn't pick up on the previous post we also celebrated our first anniversary.  Much thanks to a family friend who generously gave us a one night stay to the grand america.  (Our room was bigger than our house....)We ate dinner at the melting pot and really enjoyed the experience.  Most of all we enjoyed taking a day off from work and school to hang-out, relax and work on our tans(which are non-existant). 
We have been trying to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible our favorite adventures are boating(after hebgen I can wakeboard officially! and am working on getting small air....really really small), biking both road and mountain, and tennis.  We have also been playing ticket to ride europe and america which we stole from both of our parents house(confession) and we made our first trip to the Salt Lake Library yesterday and loved it!, I am sure I will be going there more often.  

THINGS WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO!

- Utah Football just 17 days!!!

- interning at the huntsman cancer institute

- eating at the market street counter

- finding out if baby peterson is a boy or girl

- getting my certification test out of the way, and hopefully passing

- Eric and Lindsay family coming

- Erin's birthday

- but mostly just football 

This is the first time that i have made a blog entry. As you can tell i'm having trouble with the font sizing and such. But, amanda is sleeping right now and i took her great idea and got some pics from over the last 12 months and put them together and thought it would be fun to share our crazy adventures. Its been an incredible year and I've loved every second, even when she put me in a pink apron to cook on that one night out of the whole year. jk. So enjoy.

WE went BOATING

After the Richard's got there boat out of storage, Sam started doing drive-by's just to see his precious boat.  After weeks of chilly weather and rain he set a date to take the boat out and wasn't going to let anything stop him.  Sure enough Saturday morning, 7 AM he hopped out of bed and got the boat ready.  By 8:15 we were heading up the canyon with some friends for the first day out on the lake.  We really lucked out, although the air temperature was cold, and the water temperature was cold the sun was out and stayed out for our entire adventure.  We had a great time with our friends and are really excited for many more adventures out on the boat this summer.  Thanks Richard's for letting us take it out for the first time!!

Sam out for his first ski of the season!

Clint showing up Sam

Brian sporting the double skies

Me crossing the wake(which looks a lot bigger when you are behind the boat). 

Notice my new life jacket!

Amber attacking the wake!